Fontana Hotel Grand Opening Party

Fontana Hotel held their Grand Opening last 15th December 2012, among the event scheduled for the evening are Press conference, room & hotel interior tour, free flow of drinks and canapes, and the music show featuring Bali's guitar prodigy Balawan.

Epicurina didn't miss this opportunity to knows out more about Fontana that involved no other than Bali's prominent architect Popo Danes, with the touch of former Super Potato's designer Nobuyuki Narabayashi for its interior design. I was also curious to discover what Chef Vittorio Negri has for the evening. Portabella Bistro itself was closed for the evening though, as all of its dining area & crew are catering for the food and wines for this party.

As much as I tried to dress casually, planning to attend its Press conference means I cannot dress down completely. It's time for my usual black outfit then. However having the place packed with guests resulted in a much warmer air compared with the usual, and me suddenly having a favorite hangout place near the standing aircon.

Portabella Bistro behind the scene

I met chef Vittorio Negri early when he commanded his kitchen's army preparing for the night, continuing our conversation a week before, we talked a bit further on his passion for classic Italian cooking, and about his current post as Executive Chef at Portabella Bistro. Other than being raised in an Italian tradition, Chef Vittorio explained he believes that Italian food excel in its simple happiness quality: easy to understand food, everyone's food, and that classic is the best form of Italian cuisine.

Having years of experience in the restaurant business, Chef Vittorio explained, that he had develop a fondness of sourcing for local ingredients to supplement for the genuine, imported ingredients. This habit he admit, was developed from his years of cooking in London where there's already a lot of good local ingredients available, that can be used instead of the genuine Italian-imported ingredients. This practice was continued during his practice in Abu Dhabi, Koh Samui, and now here in Bali.

By sourcing locally instead of importing ingredients half way around the world, 11,669 Km away, Portabella Bistro can cut down costs, enabling them to charge below what a Hotel's restaurant usually charge its patrons.

This advantage fits well into what Billy planned for Portabella Bistro too, that even though it's a restaurant inside a hotel, it's convenient dining & meetup place for public consumption as well. To further support this idea, Portabella Bistro provides the side entrance right beside Sunny 16 Cafe, so guests from outside the hotel can reach the settlement without all the hassles involved in entering a hotel.

Fontana Hotel behind the scene

At the press conference held in the Hepburn room, Fontana Hotel was represented by its owner pak Frans, its General Manager Wayan Supandi, its Director of Sales Komang Sri Dewi, and representing Portabella Bistro, its mastermind Billy Wirawan.

The event revealed interesting facts about Fontana Hotel itself: that to pursue their vision of a perfect leisure experience they let their 46 acres land only houses 136 rooms, and they choose to have their own management instead of joining established chain hotel operators to be truly serving their ideals; how they have four floors with different theme on each floors, how Fontana is among the very few hotel applying Balinese Prada paint, and many other less known facts.

Portabella's other mastermind Finy Wirawan was nowhere in sight until the conference about to end, so unlike last time there's not much information revealed from her side.

The Hepburn room itself Billy explained, was named after the famous actress Audrey Hepburn, which resulted in all-white elegant looking interior design. Beside of Hepburn, there are also three other function rooms at Fontana Hotel, each with different design styles.

The Party

The party started around the Press Conference is done: guests are coming, the food and drinks are there, so I did not waste a moment to hunt for interesting shots; and sampling the finger food Portabella served that evening.

The opening ceremony itself was done casually, after the Balawan opening show, and the creative fashion show done by Fontana Hotel's crew; parading their daily working uniforms, including from the service department. I can see that they take a serious attention to details.

Pak Wayan informed earlier that the dress code of the Hotel's staff that evening is "Color Diversity", which resulted in a very casual outfit wore by the staffs; different only in the ribbons wore on their arms.

The Concert

Balawan performed variety of music repertoire that evening, including the unique score from Gotye, "Somebody that I used to know". With his double-neck guitar and tapping style, Balawan also performed beautiful complicated scores involving Balinese gamelan, his signature composition.

The Food

While they're all small and considered lightweight, since the canape supply is unlimited and there are so many variants to taste, I end up feeling full by sampling most of the savory ones, leaving the sweet ones out. Fell in love with the smokey tuna in cucumber, surprised by the very simplistic but good hot dog, delicious mini pizza, and I found myself coming back for another supply of chicken fillet with beetroot; quite an interesting combination. The aged marinated beef was another favorite as well.

A dish that quite surprising though, was the one Chef Vittorio explained as a traditional "Italian quick food": mix the pasta, the cheese, the cream, then bake it, and you get this macaroni schotel like dish ready for general occasions. It's a dish you won't find in restaurants he added, only in Italian homes.

What first came to my mind though, is the Indonesian habit of creating "Martabak Indomie" by turning the nation's most famous instant noodle into an omelette; our favorite emergency meal when we have nothing serious to be cooked seriously, yet we're getting bored of the usual instant noodle dinner. It's simple, delicious, easy to prepare, and I think every country has at least one of this .

The Aftermath

It was a blast: seeing Balawan live, getting to know the people and the story behind the scene of both Fontana Hotel and Portabella Bistro; tasting the interesting servings from Portabella Bistro's kitchen throughout the night, meeting some of the Denpasar's journalists, and simply having a good time. On top of that, I believe I got some interesting catch of Balawan's on my camera, so I don't mind having my shirt drenched wet from all the action.

I do find it awkward though upon meeting the Fontana's trio conceptor; Billy, Finy, and pak Frans, where hand shakes and shoulder tapping are happening almost intuitively. Well Balinese heat around December is really torturing, especially for someone grown up in a cold weather like I am.

As the night heated up with the DJ's playing, I found myself overheated as well and need to excuse myself from the crowd. End of the party for me.

Last, so you don't miss them when you visit Fontana Hotel, here are pictures of Finy and pak Wayan, taken from Fontana's own collection:

For more pictorial journey on this Fontana Hotel Grand Opening Party, tune in to Instagram and search for "Fontana Hotel", or find it through Statigram here. To find out more about Portabella Bistro please navigate here. They also offers special 25% off discount until the end of January 2013. (byms)